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FATF report on potential risks with virtual currencies

NOTE: this story is about an older event. It has been included in the Newsblog because it is considered a useful story for reference purposes.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body that develops and promotes policies to protect the global financial system from money laundering and terrorist financing, has issued a report on virtual currencies.

The report provides an overview of centralised virtual currencies which are controlled by a central administrator and non-centralised ones such as Bitcoin. The report gives key definitions and also outlines the potential risks virtual currencies may present to global anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT) standards.

The report finishes off by discussing the cases of Liberty Reserve, Silk Road and Western Express International, as examples of law enforcement action involving virtual currencies.